PNG police set up taks force to hunt for killers

A special task force is to be established in Papua New Guinea to help police find the killers of a truck driver in Kerowagi in Chimbu last week.

The driver was killed and several other employees of the trucking firm, IPI, were injured when they were attacked by tribespeople in retaliation for the death of another of the company's workers in an unrelated vehicle accident last April.

The Post Courier newspaper reports local MP, Guma Wau, saying the attack and killing was barbaric and the killers had no respect for human life.

The tribespeople had gone to Mount Hagen to claim compensation from IPI but when the negotiations failed they stole a company truck on their way home to their village in Chimbu.

The IPI workers later tried to repossess the truck and that is when the driver was killed.